Saturday, June 7, 2008

Clinton Supporters for McCain?

It seems to me that most people fall into one of two camps on the "What happens to Clinton's supporters now?" question.

The first camp are the Vengeful Voter thinkers. According to these folk, Senator Clinton's supporters are so angry at there candidates loss/the vile coming from the far left about the Clinton family/the "unsportsmanlike" campaign by Obama/everything else, that they are going to either stay home in the fall or (GASP!) vote for John McCain, a guy who most democrats don't view as being the Devil incarnate.

The second camp are the Party Line thinkers. These people are of the opinion that Senator Clinton's supporters are still democrats first and foremost and that they're going to come together around Obama with a few words of unity from his silver tongue. They believe that McCain's opposition to abortion and dislike of goverment mandated/run health care will remind the Clintonites that they have much more in common with Obama then the GOP.

Who's right? If I had to pick one, I'd go with the Party Line people. Democrats come home to democrats, just like I'm convinced in the fall republicans will come home to republicans. That being said there will be some attrition from the Dems to McCain on a number of fronts, primarily coming from Blue-Collar voters and Women.

My Mother would never say it, god bless her, but if Clinton had been the democratic nominee, she probably would have voted for her to try and see a woman president. She loathes Obama, and several of her close friends, who tend to lean democratic, feel similarly.

If McCain can make overtures to these groups by sending out surrogates that can talk to them in ways they understand (Carly Fiorina to the Women, Fred Thompson to the Blue-Collar men) I think McCain can pick up an enough voters to win this thing... but it'll be working against the tide. Most Democratic voters will vote Democrat in the fall, make no mistake. The few we pick off could be important though, so remember the slogan for your Clinton-Loving friends- McCain: He's Not the Devil!